Meet our Antarctica expedition guides

A&K’s expedition guides are all experts in their field. The team will provide the insight required to make your journey to Antarctica magical. Through lectures, guided tours and informal instruction, they can equip you with the skills needed to traverse safely through this wild and remote destination. They also teach clients about the behaviour of the wildlife and the landscapes in these remote regions, and how best to capture them with a camera.

Suzana Machado D'Oliveira

Expedition Leader

Suzana has travelled the globe from pole to pole since 1988, journeying to Antarctica some 200 times. She’s explored exotic locales from the Amazon to Indonesia, and she’s as comfortable hiking trails and white-water kayaking as she is travelling in first-class comfort. Equally versed on ships of every calibre, Suzana has served as both expedition leader and cruise director. She’s also A&K's representative to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO). Born and raised in Brazil, she studied history at the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro. She continues to take great interest in the cultures she visits.

Rich Pagen

Naturalist and Zodiac Driver

Rich began his career in conservation biology as an educator. After receiving a master's degree from the University of Missouri, he worked as a field supervisor on a study of the Amazon’s birdlife. As a biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, he’s led tagging studies of both sea turtle and shark. For the past six years, Rich has also conducted shipboard surveys of seabirds.

Jannie Cloete

Cruise Director

A native of South Africa, Jannie has been working as cruise director and expedition leader for over 28 years. The ships have ranged from a mega-liner with 2,500 passengers to a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker bound for the North Pole. This vocation has taken him to all seven continents. He’s seen the Antarctic, the tropics and the remotest place in between. With his amiable and approachable nothing-is-too-much attitude, Jannie has settled into full-time work on smaller vessels that visit lesser-known destinations, becoming a specialist in journeys off the beaten track.

Russ Manning

Naturalist and Zodiac Driver

Russ joined the British Royal Marine Commandos at 17, serving for 15 years. He specialised in small boat, polar and mountain operations. Then the British Antarctic Survey swept him off to an expedition guiding three Dutch botanists on the Antarctic Peninsula, leading to twenty-eight months in the South Orkneys. Russ returned for a further eighteen-months, and on coming home was awarded the Polar Medal. For the past 14 seasons, he’s worked on expedition vessels as a Zodiac driver and naturalist. When not in Antarctica or the Arctic, he operates a Lifeguard Search and Rescue patrol boat in the UK.

Bob Burton

Lecturer on Antarctic History

After graduating from the University of Cambridge, Bob joined the British Antarctic Survey as a meteorological assistant in the South Orkneys. He studied skuas, continued census programs on Antarctic wildlife, and read fascinating accounts of early Antarctic expeditions. Bob has served as Director of the Whaling Museum at Grytviken, and was awarded a Shackleton Scholarship to collect records of the early whaling industry and explorers. He was also awarded the Polar Medal for research in Antarctica and the Arctic, and he’s written over 30 books and recently edited A Field Guide to the Wildlife of South Georgia.

Richard Harker

Photo Enrichment Coach

Richard has been a professional photographer for 20 years. He has a keen interest in underwater, wildlife and landscape photography. Capturing the exotic reaches of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Antarctic Peninsula and the Ross Sea, his works have appeared in more than a dozen books and magazines. They’ve also accompanied more than 100 articles. Equally comfortable using state-of-the-art digital SLR and 19th-century large-format field cameras, Richard joins Le Boreal as A&K's resident photographic expert and lecturer.

Dr. Jim McClintock

Lecturer on Climate Ecology

Jim is a marine biologist and field ecologist. He leads Fighting Climate Change in Antarctica, an A&K Philanthropic Journey, and he’s an endowed professor of polar and marine biology at the University of Alabama. He’s spent decades producing fieldwork in the Antarctica Peninsula in association with UAB and the National Science Foundation. In 1999, a point on the peninsula was even named after Jim in recognition of his explorations. He was also selected in 2010 by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Polar Research Board to report on the effects of climate change.

Dr. Patricia Silva

Lecturer on Ornithology

Patricia is an acclaimed ornithologist who conducts research with Argentina's University of Mar del Plata. She’s the current editor of the IAATO Save the Albatross Campaign newsletter. Much of her work is focused on the conservation of albatross and petrel in the fisheries of the Southern Ocean, and she’s worked tirelessly to help protect these amazing creatures from extinction.

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